NEWARK, NJ — The People’s Organization for Progress marked Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Monday, Jan. 15, by hosting its annual March and Rally Against Inequality, Racism, Sexism, Fascism and War in his honor, which also doubled as the 101st official Justice Monday protest.
P.O.P. Chairman Larry Hamm and his group have been gathering at the Peter W. Rodino Federal Building on Broad Street in Newark every Monday for the last 100 consecutive weeks, seeking to convince the U.S. Attorney’s Office there to open civil rights investigations into the “Jersey 4,” all unarmed black men shot by N.J. police. They include: Abdul Kamal, who was killed by Irvington police; Kashad Ashford, who was killed by Lyndhurst police; Jerame Reid, who was killed by Bridgeton police; and 14-year-old Radazz Hearns, who was shot seven times by Trenton police — four times in the back.
According to Hamm, the rally was just in time since Trump and U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Monday, Jan. 8, appointed Craig Carpenito, former Gov. Chris Christie’s “Bridgegate” trial lawyer, as New Jersey’s interim attorney general.
“Everybody’s freezing out here, but today’s demonstration fulfills our Justice Monday requirement for today,” said Hamm on Monday, Jan. 15. “We ask people to come out every Monday at 4:30 p.m. at the Federal Building to protest police brutality and the Trump administration.”
Hamm did spare some time for a few select speakers at the protest march and rally on Monday, Jan. 15, despite the freezing winter weather that participants braved to honor King and his legacy.
“I’m calling Nat Williams because Nat Williams was at the 1963 March on Washington, when Martin Luther King Jr. gave his ‘I Have a Dream’ speech,” said Hamm. “He was there in 1963 in Washington, D.C.”
Williams acknowledged that he was with King in the nation’s capital in 1963, but he was also happy to be with P.O.P. and all the other organized labor, grassroots activists and concerned citizens Monday, Jan. 15.
“You are the people and you are the people that are standing up,” said Williams on Monday, Jan. 15. “I just left a church and my daughter performed in the church in the regular Martin Luther King Jr. Day they have at all the churches in Newark and the skits they are giving. I told them in the church: ‘We’re marching now. We’re marching now on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. We need to do that every year. It’s nice to have those little skits in church, but it’s time for those church people to just come on out here and just get involved and keep on doing what Martin Luther King Jr. was doing. He was fighting. The struggle is not over. It’s up to us.”
Hamm agreed with Williams and reiterated that Carpenito’s appointment represents an opportunity for justice, as well as a challenge to individuals and organizations that have been fighting, marching and protesting for justice for years, such as the People’s Organization for Progress. He said now they all know whose office they will be protesting outside of for the next few years of Justice Monday protests.
“What interesting is Jeff Session or President Trump have announced a number of attorney generals,” said Hamm on Tuesday, Jan. 9. “I think it was Craig Carpenito who was a lieutenant of Gov. Christie to replace (former Attorney General) Paul Fishman. Once all the preliminaries have been handled, he should probably get approved as the next New Jersey attorney general. We’re going to reach out to him, the same way we reached out to Paul Fishman.”
Hamm said he does not hold out much hope for a dramatic change in the federal government’s policy with Trump, Sessions and Carpenito, when it comes to prosecuting police officers and other members of law enforcement that are accused of violating the civil rights of blacks and other suspects, but hope does spring eternal.
“We’re going to keep fighting, regardless,” said Hamm. “We’re not optimistic. Fishman did make an effort to reach out to the victims’ families and interact with the families, but we still didn’t achieve our goal of getting full-fledged Civil rights investigations into the deaths of Abdul Kamal, Kashad Ashford, Jerame Reid and Radazz Hearns. That being said, we’re not overly optimistic about what we can get from this new attorney general, who is a Trump appointee. But we’re going to continue to push the channel for change.”
Hamm, P.O.P. celebrate MLK Day with a 101st consecutive protest added by Chris Sykes on
View all posts by Chris Sykes →